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Subject:RE: How to deal with incorrect editing From:"whitedh" <whitedh -at- comcast -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 29 Dec 2003 11:56:03 -0500
> It must be fun to be so rich that you can risk your
> livelihood for the sake of a point of grammar.
I would like to be rich; our livelihoods are likely all at risk these days.
However, we're writers and grammar is the cornerstone of our profession. I
believe that good leaders will respond to conscientious stands taken based
on professional ethics and standards. I did not advise a confrontation or a
lecture or condescension. If a writer does not have the intestinal fortitude
to "risk" a stand that bears directly on his or her profession, how can a
boss trust that employee to stand for anything?
A boss of mine once returned a document I authored after having red-lined
every instance of my use of the verb "use," substituting "utilize" or some
derivative. I asked him the meaning of "utilize;" he automatically replied:
"To use." He grimaced and growled "Okay." It wasn't so much that I won; I
helped him achieve his own stated goal of delivering more easily understood
documents in everyday English.
Donald H. White
whitedh -at- comcast -dot- net
804.795.2914
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